You know you’ve ruffled some feathers when a single blog post gets 200 comments (some of them quite vulgar) in one day, and it’s follow-up post already has more than 50 comments (again, many of them are quite vulgar). It all started when O’Reilly Media sent a cease and desist letter to IT@Cork because the IT@Cork was planning to put on a conference called the “Web 2.0 Half-Day Conference” and (apparently) O’Reilly has applied for a service mark (both here and in the UK) that prohibits anyone other than O’Reilly to have a live conference or event that has the words “Web 2.0” in the title.

Others have noted that O’Reilly wasn’t the first to use the term, so he doesn’t really have a claim to it.

Michael Casey has assured everyone that, whether you love it or hate it, the “Library 2.0” term is in the public domain.

It’s kind of funny because just the day before this whole thing blew up, a co-worker and I were talking about the Library 2.0 concept and name. She expressed concern that whenever someone puts a new and catchy name onto something that we’ve already been doing you have to worry what they’re selling you. This turned out to be so true with the Web version of the name!

One thought on “A Fine Old Brouhaha”

Here’s the Service Mark application, found by searching the USPTO site==============Word Mark WEB 2.0Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Arranging and conducting live events, namely, trade shows, expositions and business conferences in various fields, namely, computers, communications, and information technology. FIRST USE: 20041005. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20041005

IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Organizing and conducting educational conferences, tutorials and workshops in the fields of computers, communication and information technology. FIRST USE: 20041005. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20041005Standard Characters Claimed Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARKDesign Search Code Serial Number 78322306Filing Date November 3, 2003Current Filing Basis 1AOriginal Filing Basis 1BPublished for Opposition September 13, 2005Owner (APPLICANT) CMP MEDIA LLC LTD LIAB CO DELAWARE 600 COMMUNITY DRIVE MANHASSET NEW YORK 11030Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDEDAttorney of Record Robert W. SacoffDisclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE “WEB” APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWNType of Mark SERVICE MARKRegister PRINCIPALLive/Dead Indicator LIVE